Lentisk
Lentisk is a plant that can beup to three meters high. It blooms from March to May with yellow flowers and then bright red, shiny berries. It usually grows on roadsides and in sparse thickets and forest edges and originated in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands.
Lentisk was early an important medicinal plant. By carving in the bark extracts mastic which is a liquid resin that is traditionally used medicinally and in the manufacture of varnish. Dried resin was chewed to produce cleaner teeth and fresher breath.
Today, mastic is even used in moisturizers, toothpaste, candy, gum, perfumes, soft drinks, liqueurs, ouzo and medicine manufacturing. The Greek island of Chios is considered to be the largest producer of mastic.
In perfumes mastic gives a green, woody scent of pine needles and bark.